Price gap between diesel, biodiesel widens in Germany

At the end of October, Germany’s wholesale price for biodiesel stood at around 75.60 euro cents per liter (USD $3.066 per gallon), excluding energy tax, thus exceeding the price for agricultural diesel (i.e., off-road diesel) by nearly 10 euro cents per liter (USD $0.416 per gallon).

According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (AMI), this was the highest price level since June 2014. The massive surge of biodiesel prices was due to rising feedstock costs, buoyant demand of rapeseed methyl esters (RME) in front of the cold season and high freight costs in the wake of low water levels of major waterways.

At the same time, prices for agricultural diesel were under downward pressure from weak futures quotes for crude oil, dropping to a two-month low of, on average, 65.70 euro cents per liter (USD $2.688 per gallon).

Rapeseed oil prices have been fairly firm over the past few weeks as buyer interest rose and supplies dwindled. Most recently, prices for rapeseed oil were at virtually the same level as those for agricultural diesel, at around 66.30 euro cents per liter for deliveries fob Hamburg.